Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Does anyone else find it funny that only a few days after Payl Ruan was selected by, well who knows really, as Mill ro-Money's running mate, that the first Gen Xer on a major US presidential ticket, is forced to comment incessantly on the definition of rape? Payl Ruan, as I like to call him, as he has set up the blueprint for you to pay to ruin your country by way of making our elite much richer than they already are, institutionalizing the transfer of money UP the social hierarchy.

The "biggest brown noser," voted as such by his fellow High School classmates, willing apparently to stick his nose up anybody's ass if he thought it worthwhile; but of course, you don't become a youthful brown noser unless you hope one day others will find occasion to stick their nose up yours. A kind of expectation, actually. Such people not ultimately thinking rape is any kind of big deal, thinking as they do the only truly meaningful relationships are those having to do with power, as in dominator/dominated - and really, if you are willing to let your nose get a little brown, well, you have to be willing to bend over. That the presumptive VP has been so willing in his life to assume the submissive position, doesn't in my mind bode well for him to become the potential supreme leader of empire, not because I think he would be weak, but because I think he would have the expectation that we all get down doggie style. Whether he would be standing upright in the front or back, and which way he would be facing, is as yet one of those disconcerting unknown unknowns.

It seems like old news now, but lets review the particulars. ro-Money introduced Payl in Norfolk, Virginia, in front of the battleship Wisconsin (decommissioned, presumably gutted, precisely what ro-Money and Ruan intend to do with Social Security, Medicare, unions and government generally, leaving empty hulls - except for the military/police/spies domestic and foreign placed, which you can expect to be fattened up, invigorated and robust.) I assume, to send the message that this is the ticket for continued, perhaps exponential warmongering. ro-Money introduced Ruan as, "the next President," which may or may not be the plan, if ro-Money turns out not purely free-market sociopath enough - which one wonders, did those who made the choice of Payl Ruan, make it clear to ro-Money the terms, and oops, that slipped out? He covered himself by offering up a double negative, "I did not make a mistake with this man," which also maybe roundabout implies he didn't necessarily choose Ruan either. Norfolk, by the way, is ground zero for the part of global climate change that is rising sea levels, just about the first American city that will drown, which is also ironic (amid ironies) that it is a naval yard, and fuck-the-earth (including women, children, elderly and the otherwise vulnerable) is basically now part of the Republican Party platform - the party of JESUS CHRIST, I would like to add (how many Christians this week tied themselves in knots, condemning presumptive Missouri Senator Akin for opening his big mouth, if not necessarily for what came out? Or outright defensive, of his righteousness? "In certain parts of Missouri rape by akin is legitimate, apparently.")

Speaking of rape, Payl Ruan's family is in the business of earth moving, as in digging out, scarring, devastating, gouging the land, transforming it in the industrial, opportunistic, exploitative image, for all time, for immediate profit. Much of that profit, perhaps most, coming from government contracts that have facilitated/were facilitated by Payl Ruan's political ambition, the great upstart professional demonizer/facilitator of all things big government. Oh, and he votes for oil subsidies, while owning shares in oil wells, while dehumanizing the poor, and those beneficiaries of the social contract. You do not get any more perfectly corrupt than that.

Have you noticed what big eyes Payl Ruan has? All the
better to prey upon you with. The forlorn puppy dog look. It taking a
feral, scurvy-dog kind of mind, however, to be taken in by the psychopathy of
Ayn Rand, that great popularizer of all that is vicious, that
philosopher who would tear you limb from limb just because she could,
because she deemed it in her interest. That most efficiently industrial
kind of thinker, having debased all that is good, all that is nurturing,
gentle and kind.

[You say you want a Constitutional designation, personhood for the fetus, Payl, jail time for abortion (and inevitably in such an environment, for a great many miscarriages)? What say you of the near total evisceration of the first and fourth amendments, for actual, air ensconced flesh and blood persons, since 9/11? What say you of the lawless environment on Wall Street, and among the TBTF banks and corporations, those designated "persons"? What of the growing surveillance state, the ratcheting up of command and control techniques? What of the way this government is arming up, as if for war against the people it is said to be of, by and for? Say you nothing? Not a word, not one criticism, of the growing crypto-fascism, among your myriad criticisms of too-big government? Because it is not big government you despise, it is big government you desire, on your terms, to enforce your will.]

What else? He is a Catholic. Is it any wonder then, so comfortable with the institutional model as defined by his service to the Church and Gov, he has become insensitive to rape, or that he is wont to so perfectly model corruption in the name of virtue?

Speaking of hunger games, he's a bowman too. There are to be food shortages, this next presidential term, and hardly a more ruthless two on earth than Mill ro-Money and Payl Ruan. What they will do with the money of your social contract, they will do with your food, using the government to funnel it up, to those they deem worthy. Not that this is any endorsement for O, who is not one whit less cannibalistic of the body politic, only a different color. Color not making one whit of difference in the one who is about to eat or rape you, figuratively speaking, of course.

This Payl Ruan, the first of my generation, X, on a major US presidential ticket. I am so proud.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

No news to make for Job Search Part 3 yet, so I though I might delve into the
meaning of it ALL, if you will. A new hypothesis has me thinking about
that - it's called Geotectonic Ocean Heat Transfer, put forth by RE, the
main admin at the website Doomstead
Diner.

The last twenty years, earthquake and volcanic activity has been on the rise,
markedly. If you know anything about the exponential function and how
that relates to the currency, to population, to resource extraction
and use, well, if you look at a graph of aggregate, global earthquake
activity the last 40 years, you see a similar growth curve.

Total strength of world wide earthquakes

http://research.dlindquist.com/quake/historical/?mag=0&type=strength&freq=year&s\
tyle=nonlinear
That's
strange, don't you think? It's one thing to point to carbon
emissions, or oil use, or water extraction, and say we have caused
that. But when you realize one sizable earthquake might contain the
energy equivalent of a few dozen or hundred nuclear bombs, and
there are thousands upon thousands of quakes every year, it is beyond
absurd to say humans have caused that (unless you are willing to
attribute sentience to Gaia, the earth, in which case she might be
supremely pissed off, at the aggregate behavior of her arrogant
offspring, and has decided to shake things up a bit?)

What is so striking about this hypothesis, is that most earthquake and volcanic activity takes place below the sea, which, as
it turns out, is warming faster than the atmosphere. The ocean is one
giant heat sink, and it is simply wrong to suggest heating thin air
would in turn heat dense water faster than the air is being heated.
It does not appear there is any increase in solar output, that might
be a contributing factor to the warming oceans. Instead, the
hypothesis goes, it is increased tectonic activity below the
sea, that is contributing not
just to the warming oceans, but consequently, to climate change.

Notice in these
graphs, how the early nineties saw a radical increase in earthquake
strength overall, and heat content in the oceans. That would
seem to contradict the standard model of climate change, which is
called Anthropogenic. To date, about 98% of climate
scientists are certain humans are to blame, with our burning of
fossil fuels in the rampant way that we do. The other 2% are
generally fundamentalist Christians who cannot believe, and paid-for
corporate shills who won't. The problem of course is, anytime 98% of
any group believe the same thing, when that thing is of great import,
that's called orthodoxy; getting the orthodox to accept or
even entertain anything, however factual, that might suggest a flaw
in the core belief, is damn near impossible (see aforementioned Christians.)

The Geotectonic Ocean Heat Transfer hypothesis does not in fact
contradict ACC (Anthropocentric Climate Change). Whatever is
happening to the climate, we are certainly exacerbating that. There
is nothing particularly healthy for the biosphere, polluting it the
way we do, and what isn't healthy for the biosphere isn't healthy for
the biological entity known as people, whatever the propaganda says
about this glorious Age. Civilization as we know it is economically
beneficial to a small number of humans, disastrous for the majority,
and catastrophic for life generally. There isn't any question at all, approaching the 400 ppb number, of carbon molecules in the
atmosphere, we are helping to heat up the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. But there is clearly
something else going on.

RE suggests, as our solar system is passing through the plane of
the ecliptic of the Milky Way, from above the plane to below the
plane, the nearer we are to the plane, the more we are bombarded with
neutrinos flowing from the center of the galaxy, which is putting a
strain on all the interstellar bodies - the other planets and the
sun.

Whatever the cause, it is certainly a paradigmatic shift to say
that climate change is being caused by changes within the earth, particularly when you are suggesting the driver of that is something coming from outside the heliosphere.
Because if that is the case, well, it would seem to suggest we are
fucked, if the increase in tectonic activity continues. We've grown
accustomed to the idea of continuity. Not just here in America the
last seventy years, with the ever growing economy, but over all, the
last 10,000 years. We are told, that when the ice from the last ice
age finally melted, the climate settled into a nice calm groove, we
started planting seeds, and it's been all progress on this (climatically) stable planet ever since. RE suggests the heating of the
oceans will mean more moisture in the air, ever more rains, and ever
more cloud cover, until the earth is shrouded and things cool down.
That of course would lead to another ice age, and very great
difficulties unknown in recent memory, for a higher mammal
called Homo sapien. As in, population bottleneck. That likely has
happened before, when the Toba volcano in the south pacific blew it's
top, 70,000 years ago, shrouding the skies with particulate, blocking the sun
and reducing the population of Homo sapien to an estimated 1000
breeding pairs. So it's not like that is without precedent.

But that could never happen to us, right? Because we have
conquered nature, right? If there's a more orthodox belief than that,
it's hard to imagine.

The Geotectonic Ocean Heat Transfer hypothesis may seem like just another doom and gloom
scenario, to add to the bucket full bearing down on us at this point.
But I don't think so. I think it's the best news I've heard in
awhile. How can that be? Well, I've never made much of a secret that
I think this universe is divine, which is to say, imbued with energy
and conscious intent, throughout. Hearing that the earth is acting up
tectonically, that the whole solar system is in upheaval, at the same
time the human exponential growth curve has reached it's peak, at the
same time our financial markets seem on the cusp of collapse, at the
same time we seem to be on the verge of global war for the last of
the oil, at the same time the Mayan's cyclical 5,126 long count
calendar comes to an end/beginning (5000 years ago we gathered in
cities and started writing, 10,000 years ago we started planting
seeds) well, it's just another profound layer of mysteriousness.
Radical changes are afoot, clearly, on every level. And in light of
that, the industrial age begins to look less like a terrible mistake
leading inevitably to the extinction of life on planet earth, and
more like the necessary growing pains, that we might become aware of
the changes that are happening to the entire solar system, and so,
prepare ourselves for what is coming. How we do that, I don't know,
other than to look at it and be honest. To train our consciousness there. To face
it. That we might choose to live more humbly, more harmoniously, on this beautiful planet.

We aren't really doing that of course. More, we are doing whatever
we can not to face the radical changes all around us, like this video
posted on my Facebook news feed, described by the poster as THIS IS WHAT THE INTERNET WAS MADE FOR.

Gut the resources of the earth to make a washing machine designed
with forced obsolescence to break down in less than ten years, but to
be destroyed instead for pleasure by some idiot bright enough to heft
a rock.

Perhaps it's best to give up on any meaning, in the way of
conspicuous affluence and "disposable" income? Or, find this the most propitious of times, to
be AWAKE and ALIVE, to BE in a way that is MEANINGFUL, as if we are at the cusp of a transformation unlike anything humanity has ever known?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

BTW - I keep forgetting to mention, one of my readers sent me a great documentary Once Upon A Time In Knoxville I highly recommend. A great story of the waste based culture of our time, and what some are doing about it.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

I've been holding onto this piece for awhile, not sure how to write
it. While I'm not really paranoid - I don't lie awake at night worrying
about suits with guns and unmarked black SUV's - I'm no dummy, and it's
clear to anyone who cares at this point, the surveillance, police state
is ratcheting up. It's not like I'm anything like a threat to my
government - who's gonna rally behind that Goddess guy, in any kind of
number? - but I have said many a thing in this blog that could be
triggers to some digital sweeper, leading to God knows what. All in all,
I think my message is about peace. But then, when you think about it,
the last thing the leadership of this empire, any empire wants, is
peace. A compliant, apathetic, cynical consumer citizenry, passively in
support of global military expansion and universal debt bondage, maybe,
but certainly not peace. So if you will permit me to be a bit coy, I
think it best perhaps not to advertise precisely where I might be
working.

That said, after my brief tour through the
rotten underbelly of the job market, I received a call about an
interview downtown. They weren't very clear about the job, and I wasn't
at first inclined to go to the interview. But it was downtown, there is a
high concentration of attractive women and curious characters downtown,
I can take the train, and as I'd skipped one interview already, it
seemed like fulfilling a kind of commitment, if not to the interview as
much to the idea of finding a job.

So I took the train
downtown on a beautiful, sunny day, and rode the elevator to a very high
floor in a prominent tower, and presented myself in my everycorporateman grey
shirt, black pants and black shoes.

First thing was the
assessment test. I was led to a back computer in a small room of ten
computers lining two walls, I was asked to take a seat, given brief
directions, before I was left alone in the room. Right off, first
question on the screen, what is 10x12? No problem. Next, what is 314-76?
Ok, thank the Goddess I brought a pen, and there's a pad of paper.
Next, what is 765.1936-345.789. Oh shit. By this time, I am feeling
somewhat clammy, not being conditioned to air conditioning, or lists of
random math questions. I'm ok with basic math. No problem. Except I'm
applying for a job, and there are 76 more questions on this first of
four assessments. Breath. Relax. You can do this.

The
math questions, um, mercifully ended after question 36 - after they had
gotten progressively more complex. Then it was on to, "of these four
sentences, which is grammatically incorrect?" And I'm looking at them,
the sentences, and I'm like, they're all kind of stilted, kind of
sloppy. I wouldn't write a sentence like that. What's the rule again
about apostrophes? Oh shit, relax, breathe, think, intuit. Then it was
about punctuation (except they're kind of the same thing), and then it
was spelling, and sometimes, in a way, it was really about all three in
the same word, except they weren't that specific. I was looking at some
of those spelling words, and I was remembering Hemingway's A Movable Feast,
and his assertion that F. Scott Fitzgerald was a terrible speller, and
then I was thinking about how spell-check has made me a lazy speller
(until recently, as my Linux Ubuntu spell check is a worse speller than I am),
and then I was like, I don't think there's an extra g in Armageddon, but
I'm pretty sure there's a second l in millennium.

The
second assessment was the 10-key. Tap. Tap tap. Tap. The third
assessment was Typing Speed and Accuracy. You'ld think after a million
and a half words...peck, peck peck, backspace, peck. After that, was the
Customer Service assessment. "If a customer is rude to you, is it ok to
be rude back? A:Never, B:Almost Never, C:Sometimes, D:Yes." Etcetera,
eighty times over. As a former manager of a retail establishment, I can
assure you, whatever is said, the customer is not always right. The
customer is at times delusional, occasionally sociopathic verging on the
psychopathic, and potentially violent. As far as I'm concerned, I
scored 100% on that test.

Back in the lobby, I was
standing at the front desk filling out some paperwork, when I heard a voice
next to me: "Hunter Duncan. William Hunter Duncan." I looked over, and
there was Lorenzo M. who I haven't seen in maybe eight years. We had a
little love fest, and in that moment, the entire mood in the room
changed, and I went from random guy applying for a job, to part of the
in-crowd, just like that.

In the official interview
with Jackie, I was informed that I scored in the 96th percentile on the
math/grammar/punctuation/spelling test; only the 90th percentile in accuracy
on the 10-key and typing tests, but, um, slightly below average on
speed. But not so slow as to disqualify me...whew. On the customer
service assessment, I got a dozen questions wrong. Wrong? I told Jackie I
didn't think it was possible to get a "wrong" answer unless you were a
fool. She laughed and said the 83% percentile probably meant I
was telling the truth. I told her I answered as a manager, and not a
robot. She giggled.

Afterward I went to lunch with
Lorenzo. He claims, that very morning he was looking at a database of
potential hires, that he hasn't looked at in three months, and my name
was second on the list.

The next day I was talking
with a friend, one of the Halloween partners (of the retail store I
managed), and he says, you're a prolific writer, go to this website and
type in "writer." I did, and the first thing that popped up was my DREAM
job. Not just my DREAM job, but the thing I was MADE TO DO. Except, I
was in the middle of shooting off resume after resume, and I didn't
realize it was my DREAM job that I was MADE TO DO. I filled out the necessary info, hopped up
on coffee, sweating, and went to send it, and my Internet went down.
That's weird. Restart. No Internet. Restart, Restart, freak out for no
good reason, Restart. Internet! Yeah! Go to send, Internet goes down,
Shit, WTF! Restart, Freak out for no reason. Restart. Restart.

Send.

It
wasn't until I went back later and I really looked at the job
description, and then even later as I was in bed, trying to get to
sleep, that it hit me, that's my DREAM job! That's not just my DREAM
job, that's MY JOB! That's what I've been working toward, without
knowing that's what I've been working toward! And Oh MY GOD, I fucked it
up, didn't I? Those weren't the writing samples I should have sent!
That wasn't the cover letter. Idiot! And then I realized, or remembered,
I sent that application thinking that I couldn't get that job,
and I was only applying because I couldn't not. And then I rolled around
in bed for another hour berating myself. Why didn't I just take the
hint - the first or the second - and stop, and think about it?

Less
than 48 hours later, I was rejected by HR. As expected. So I started
calling everyone I knew who might have any connection to anyone who
might be inside the office of my DREAM job. Call after call, and
nothing, and then I called one of my childhood playmates, who used to come out
to the lake and go swimming and paddle around in the paddle boat, and
she was like, I know everybody in that office. And I was like WHOO-HOO,
and dancing. And she dropped my name with half a dozen people, and I
made contact by email, and spent five days re-writing everything,
Resume, Cover Letter and Samples, recruiting some good advice from an HR
friend. I reapplied, and that is still pending.

Yesterday,
I got the call. I got that other job. Not the DREAM job, but the
never-in-a-million-years-imagined-I-would-do job, the back into the
belly of the behemoth job, doing something egregious (maybe*) for less
money/hr than I make landscaping with my friend Organic Bob,
less-than-half/hr I was making at that other behemoth doing something a
hell of a lot easier, back in 2008 before the market collapsed, or was
collapsed. (*I say egregious, but I don't really know for sure, and I
may even like it and be good at it, and it might be a great opportunity,
and eventually pay for all sorts of necessities. Stay tuned.)

That
job doesn't start for three weeks. Meanwhile, there's still the
possibility of the DREAM job. Except I have to get past HR, and they are
humorless, and I don't necessarily have the credentials. If I'd gone
and got that Masters and that Doctorate like my professors all wanted me
to, instead of wandering in the wilderness, and learning how to build a
house, and gardening and writing radical blogs and books, I'd be a
shoo-in (and about $150,000 in debt.)Still, nobody in this city can do a better job at that job than I can.

I
keep calling out, I am in service. My Goddess, my Goddess, my Goddess,
my name is William Hunter Duncan, and I am in service to you. The path
seems obvious to me, but that's not now in my control.